Study of women faculty in the humanities and social sciences cites successes, points to areas for improvement

Posted October 6, 2005; 07:00 a.m.

by Cass Cliatt

Princeton continues to make gains in the hiring and retention of
female scholars in the humanities and social sciences, but substantial
recruiting efforts will be necessary to further increase the
representation of women in the decade to come, according to a recent
faculty study.

The report on the Status of Women Faculty in the Humanities and Social
Sciences at Princeton was released by the Office of the Dean of the
Faculty Oct. 6 as part of the University's continuing efforts to
improve the representation of women on the faculty.

The report showed the University made some gains from 1992 to 2002, as
the percentage of female faculty members in the humanities and social
sciences increased from 23.2 percent to 26.9 percent. However, progress
in hiring women varied greatly across the 20 departments in the
humanities and social sciences, where the percentage of faculty
vacancies that resulted in female hires ranged from 9.1 percent to 100
percent.

"While there has been progress, there is still much work to do," said
David Dobkin, Princeton's dean of the faculty. "I look forward to the
day when the pool attracted to every faculty search has a profile
similar to the talent pool in the discipline."

Princeton Psychology Professor Joan Girgus drafted the study of women
faculty in the humanities and social sciences to continue the work of a
2003 report
released by the Task Force on the Status of Women in the Natural
Sciences and Engineering at Princeton. That report led to Girgus'
appointment as special assistant to the dean of the faculty to oversee
gender equity issues.

"I think the most significant finding is the remarkable parallels in
the data between this report and the report on the status of women in
the natural sciences and engineering," Girgus said. "There is a
tendency to think that the situation that was described in the natural
sciences and engineering report is unique to those fields where women
have traditionally been represented in low numbers, but, in fact, the
data are actually quite similar, particularly between the social
sciences and the natural sciences and engineering."

Both reports found little difference between salaries or the length of
time for male and female faculty to attain tenure. Like the natural
sciences and engineering report, the humanities and social sciences
report explored the University's practices in regards to hiring,
promotion and retention from 1992 to 2002, tracking the number of women
in untenured, tenure-track and tenured positions.

The percentage of women in individual departments varied greatly in
2002, from 10 percent to 57.1 percent, and the women in half the
departments made up less than 30 percent of their overall faculty.

The report stressed the need for better utilization of the available
pools of women applying for faculty positions. The findings showed that
13 of 18 departments that hired new faculty in the humanities and
social sciences over the 10-year period took low or moderate advantage
of the available pool of female Ph.D's.

"I am already incorporating the findings into my work," Girgus said.
"The chairs of all the departments have had an extended discussion
about how to encourage more women to apply for assistant professor
positions at Princeton based on what we have learned about how much
better women are represented in the Ph.D. pools than they are in the
applicant pools for our positions."

The next step, Girgus said, is to improve the recruitment and hiring of
women at both the junior and senior levels, as well as to increase the
retention of tenured women. Several measures already in progress --
including two spawned by the initial task force on women faculty in the
sciences and engineering -- should help with this effort.

The University has adopted a policy that allows faculty members to
automatically extend their tenure period if they have children, and
Princeton is proceeding with efforts to develop a jobs database that
will help spouses of faculty find jobs near the University.

In addition, Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman has charged a
working group with planning for a significant expansion and improvement
of child care at the University. Girgus said that it is generally
accepted that women bear more of the obligations associated with
parenting than men do.

Tilghman, who also appointed the initial task force to study women
faculty in the sciences and engineering, said these studies provide
important data to consider when making decisions about ways to improve
the climate for women faculty on campus. The result, she said, will be
a better environment for all employees.

"The goal is not only to assure that there are no gender-based
professional inequities, but also to provide a continued commitment to
improving the quality of life for all Princeton employees so that they
may maintain better work-life balances," Tilghman said.

The full report on the Status of Women Faculty in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Princeton is available online.